My Guide to Job Hunting: Find Mentors and Maintain Relationships with Them

As I mentioned before, I'm so sorry to ignore any readers who have come here looking for advice and sympathies on being an unemployed librarian.  So I’ve prepared a series of posts to help guide you down your path of library job hunting. Be sure to check out my other posts in this series, Treat Job Hunting Like Your Job, Get Organized, Diversify Your Sources, and Update Your Cover Letter and Resume Daily.

Find mentors and maintain relationships with them

I’ve mentioned several times that I have wonderful mentors and that they served as excellent beacons of advice during my job applying days.  Have I mentioned that the sole reason I’m in the job I’m in now is because of my mentor? 

In late February, I responded to a post on my school’s listserv from a former professor of mine who was looking for some help with a consulting project she was working on a local hospital library.  I knew I didn’t want to be a medical librarian (ha!), but I needed the experience and the money, so I emailed her and told her I was interested.  Fast forward 3 months and I was interviewing for the medical librarian position.  All because of one of my mentors.  Several people had responded to the listserv posting, but she asked me (and my hospital librarian colleague) because she knew me and knew my work. 

Besides my special library mentor, my other mentors were my favorite professor, the director of my program (I was her grad/teaching assistant), and the librarian at the small library on campus where I was a graduate student employee for a year.  All them proofed my resume and cover letters multiple times, gave me interview tips, helped me through my nerves, and gave me countless hours of advice for job hunting and actually being a librarian.  They served as my references, and because I had such good relationships with them, I never worried that one of them wouldn’t show me in the best light.  I kept them informed of my progress and sought their opinions on numerous occasions. 

I still maintain those relationships.  Whenever I visit my library school’s campus, I make a point to try to schedule a quick meeting or a lunch and we have fairly regular correspondence by email.  By maintaining these relationships, I now count them as colleagues and look forward to discussing our jobs and trading anecdotes.  My relationship with my special library mentor is even better.  She stops by the hospital on occasion, we have lunch every few months or so, and she is my biggest source of help.  Whenever I have a question or a literature search that is extremely difficult, I turn to her first. 

I encourage you to find mentors at library school, your job, your local public library, anywhere!  You never know where a good mentor is going to appear.  Mentors should be more than sources for references and job advice.  They should be professional colleagues, even friends.  Someone to guide you on your path to being a better librarian and someone to help you through those tough moments. 

Do you have a mentor?  While I may not be the most experience librarian, I’m always willing to talk to aspiring and new librarians, so feel free to email me with questions or even just to chat.  My email is lizy1285 (at) gmail (dot) com. 

I hope you enjoyed this series.  Please feel free to leave comments or email me with any questions.  If there is a topic I missed or something you would like to see covered, please let me know!

My Guide to Job Hunting: Update Your Cover Letter and Resume Daily

As I mentioned before, I'm so sorry to ignore any readers who have come here looking for advice and sympathies on being an unemployed librarian.  So I’ve prepared a series of posts to help guide you down your path of library job hunting. Be sure to check out my other posts in this series, Treat Job Hunting Like Your Job, Get Organized, and Diversify Your Sources.

Update your cover letter and resume daily 

It goes without saying (but I’m going to say it anyway!) that you should tailor your cover letter for each job you apply for.  Not only should you make sure you have the correct name, address, and job title in the letter, but you should also be using the job description to write your letter.  If the job description asks for energetic, enthusiastic librarians with Web 2.0 skills and outreach experience, your cover letter should demonstrate how you meet these qualifications.  The point of a cover letter is to highlight your resume and make you stand out in a crowd.  A cover letter is not the time to be modest!  Outside of an interview, this is your only opportunity to let the search committee know how amazingly suited you are for the job.  And all of it should be done in one page.  That’s a lot to ask I know, but a good cover letter can mean (and mostly likely will) getting the interview over another candidate.  Look for a post on writing good cover letters soon.

A lot of job searchers craft their resume, have a friend or colleague proofread it, and call it day.  That is not enough!  You should tweak, fix, edit, proof, etc your resume every day.  Working on your resume is a great thing to do during the time you’ve set aside each day for job hunting, especially if it’s a day with no applications to complete.  There are a number of resume writing resources out there, so I’m not going to spend time telling you what should and shouldn’t be on your resume.  Hopefully, you should know that.  And if you don’t, email me and we’ll work on it.

A resume is a lot like a cover letter.  It should highlight your abilities, skills, and education.  It should make you look like a star applicant.  While it should never lie or stretch the truth, your resume should make you look like a rock star.  Your resume should show the search committee that you have the education, experience, and skills to do the job they want you to do.  Which is why you should tailor your resume to suit the job.  I’m not saying you should rewrite your resume for every job you apply for, but you should have several different versions.  For example, I had a version for academic libraries with an instruction focus, academic libraries with an outreach focus, for public libraries, etc.  They all had basically the same information on it, but I would move different things towards the top of my list, or add more or less details on certain jobs or skills depending on the type of job and the description. 

Example: Say I’m fresh out of library school and applying for a reference and instruction position at a small academic library.  The first thing I would list is my reference internship and I would give details that emphasized the time I spent sitting at the desk, assisting with instruction classes, and building LibGuides.  I would then progress down my list spotlighting any true reference work and any teaching experience.  Second example: This job application is for a public library reference position.  The first thing I would list would be my internship, but I would change the description to focus more on the reference side and dealing with all types of patrons.  I would also mention something about working with collection development if that was part of the job description.  The next job I would list would be my job as a manager in a bookstore because there I worked with the public, managed employees, did training, etc.  See what I’m doing here?  Your resume should read like a work history yes, but it should also state why your previous experience makes you such a good candidate for this job. 

Coming Wednesday: Find mentors and maintain relationships with them

When was the last time you updated your resume?  Do you write a new cover letter for every job?

My Guide to Job Hunting: Diversify Your Sources

As I mentioned before, I'm so sorry to ignore any readers who have come here looking for advice and sympathies on being an unemployed librarian.  So I’ve prepared a series of posts to help guide you down your path of library job hunting. If you missed anything, check out part one, treat job hunting like your job, and part two, get organized. 

Diversify your sources

I’ve posted about my top 5 job sites (or sources), but obviously there are others.  The source I used the most and found to be the most helpful was the University of Texas’s iSchool Job Board.  I got the emails (actually I still do) and printed out every job that looked like something I would be interested in.  Other sources that I used, besides the ones on the list, include LibGig, the LIBJOBS listserv (run by IFLA), LibJobs.com, Library Journal JobZone, Higher Ed Jobs, and LISJobs.

The reason I subscribed and checked so many sources is because not every job gets posted all over the internet.  For example, all of the jobs on ALA’s JobList will end up in a Texas iSchool email, but not the other way around.  My job as a medical librarian at a community hospital was posted in our local paper (a great source for corporate/special libraries where the people doing the hiring aren’t librarians), and then later, on LibGig and MEDLIB, but not on any other site.  So even though you may be seeing a lot of the same jobs being posted, you never know when you are going to run across something unique. 

It’s also a good idea to check with local libraries.  The branch libraries in my city have been hiring, but the jobs don’t get posted to national lists.  They occasionally end up on the local library school listserv, but the posting is mainly confined to the library’s web page.  So if you are interested in working in a specific area, check out the libraries’ web sites.  The same goes for academic institutions, especially small and community colleges.

Coming Tuesday: Update your Resume and Cover Letter

What sources am I missing?  What are your favorite sites to look for jobs?

My Guide to Job Hunting: Get Organized

As I mentioned before, I'm so sorry to ignore any readers who have come here looking for advice and sympathies on being an unemployed librarian.  So I’ve prepared a series of posts to help guide you down your path of library job hunting. If you missed part one, you can find it here.

Get organized

I can be very organized and compulsive when it comes to certain areas of my life, and job hunting was definitely one of them.  I work better with a set schedule, to-do list, and deadline so I set up the process described above to suit my personal needs.  Obviously, most of you aren’t as obsessive as I am, so you’ll want to set your schedule up to suit your needs. 

I established three ways of keeping track of the paperwork job hunting generates.  The first was a job hunting binder to help me keep track of all the job postings I came across.  I used a 2 inch three ring binder and 4 dividers, labeled according to job type: academic, public, special, applied for.  I printed off every posting I found that I thought I might possibly apply for (I know, a huge waste of paper, but necessary for me), and wrote the application date on it.  I then highlighted the date according to priority (immediate, open until filled) and arranged them in the binder in the correct category, according to their priority level.  After I applied for the job, I wrote the date I applied at the top and stored it in the last section “applied for”, organized by date.  When I followed up on the a job or heard back from the job in any way, I also marked that on the job description. 

The second way I stayed organized was by establishing a flash drive just for job hunting purposes.  I only stored job-related documents on the drive.  That way I could carry it around and use it on different computers without having to email myself all sorts of documents.  On that drive is the cover letter for every job I applied to, and probably 5 or 6 different versions of my resume (another post coming soon to explain why I think you need multiple versions of your resume).  I saved all working files as word documents and finished documents (ones that had been attached to a job application) in a PDF.  Now, I’m a little obsessed with folders on a drive so I had folders that mimicked the sections in my binder.  I found that helpful because when I was following up or needed to reference something, I could easily locate the correct cover letter/resume.  I know a lot of people don’t save all their cover letters and may find this excessive, but again, this is what worked for me and kept me sane through all of this.

The third and last way I maintained organization was an Excel spreadsheet.  I know next to nothing about Excel, but I am capable of setting up a simple spreadsheet to help me keep track of all the jobs I applied to.  I liked to think of the binder as way to keep track of all the job postings for jobs I wanted to apply for and the spreadsheet to keep track of all the jobs I applied for.  My headings were simple and included things like the name of the institution, what sort of place it was (public, academic, special), where the job was, what kind of librarian they were looking for, the date of the application deadline AND the date I applied, whether it was an electronic application, an email application, or a print and mail one, if I had followed up, the date of the follow up, if I had received any correspondence from the library and what kind, and if I received a phone or in-person interview.  Obviously, this was a huge spreadsheet, so I never printed it out, but I used it to keep track of how my job application was progressing.

Coming Monday: Diversify Your Sources

How do you stay organized in your job hunting?  Is my method to OCD for you? :)

My Guide to Job Hunting: Treat Job Hunting Like Your Job

As I mentioned before, I'm so sorry to ignore any readers who have come here looking for advice and sympathies on being an unemployed librarian.  So I’ve prepared a series of posts to help guide you down your path of library job hunting. 

Even before my 5 month stint as an unemployed librarian, I was a serious job hunter.  I started job hunting the September before I graduated library school in December.  So I easily clocked in at 8 months of serious job hunting before I lucked out with my current job.  Thus, I consider myself fairly experienced in the realm of library job hunting.  I am by no means an expert, so this serves as a disclaimer that what worked for me may not work for you.  But I hope it at least helps. 

Somewhere along the line (sometime before graduation) I developed a daily routine or a process for job hunting.  I had several mentors in library school, ranging from professors to practicing librarians to the director of my program, and all of them provided me with job hunting advice and taught me great skills.  I sort of meshed all these skills together and created my own process/routine/guideline/whatever you want to call it.  There are five parts in my process, and beginning today, I will share this guide with you.

Treat job hunting like your job

One of the best pieces of advice I ever got before library school graduation was treat job hunting like a job.  What my awesome mentor meant by that was you should set aside time every day to job hunt; create a work-like environment (see “get organized” below) and sit down and do nothing but job hunt.  Go somewhere else other than your home if you need to further that “going to work” mentality.  Don’t answer the phone, surf the internet, check facebook, or do any of those unproductive things that limit how much we actually get done.  You should devote several hours each day where you do nothing but look for jobs, apply for jobs, and work on your resume(s) and cover letters.

I had a routine during my unemployment.  After breakfast, I would get dressed (because I don’t know about you, but I’m not very productive when I’m in my pajamas) and do the usually morning piddling on the internet (blogging, facebooking, email checking).  After that I would set a time limit (usually two hours) where I job hunted.  I made myself to apply for at least four jobs every day.  If I ran out of jobs to apply for, I worked on my resume, emailed potential contacts or followed up on previous applications, and continued to look for more jobs.  If I didn’t finish all 4 applications in the two hours, then I would go back later in the day and finish them up. 

Clearly this takes discipline and motivation, but if you think of job hunting as your only job until you find a real one, I find the motivation isn’t too hard to come by.

Coming tomorrow: Get Organized

What do you think about this?  Do you have a routine that helps you stay focused on job hunting?

It’s Time to Ask the Readers!

The other day I was checking my stats (I have a love/hate relationship with mine) and looked to see what keywords people were using to find my blog on search engines. It surprised me that the number one key word search that brings people to this blog is "unemployed librarian".

Honestly, that shouldn't surprise me because this blog was originally entitled The Adventures of an Unemployed Librarian and the URL still reflects that. But sometimes I forget (and/or get caught up in other things) about all the unemployed librarians out there. So I apologize! But never fear, I will try not to neglect you again.

I have shared a few things fairly recently about job hunting and the state of the library economy (you can find those here and here). You can also read more about those topics and my personal experiences in the "Job Hunting" category. But it's been a while since I've given any real advice.

I have a post planned for later today on my personal process for job hunting, but what I really want is your opinion. As far as job hunting goes, what would you like to read about? Resume tips? Interview skills? Life as a full time librarian? (If you are interested in the latter, you can check out my posts about medical librarianship at Closed Stacks.)

What can I write about to help you/ease your fears/convince you stay in the profession?

Let me know in the comments or send me an email (lizy1285 {at} gmail {dot} com). I will also be asking this question several times on Twitter tomorrow so, if you don't already, follow @LibrarianLizy and answer there.

In Which I Answer a Reader Question

On Tuesday I got an email from a new reader (by the way, I love getting email from readers!).  Annie is in her first semester of library school and wrote to me asking my opinion on the recent attitude change towards MLIS degrees.  With her permission, I’m answering her question here.

The Question: I want to thank you for the advice that you posted on there, it's very helpful to someone like me who's starting out. As I click around on all these various blogs, I'm noticing a certain attitude about MLIS degrees. Some people who are really bitter about wasting their time and money on it. It actually is freaking me out because I wanted to get this degree to help me get a job. What do you think of this attitude? Is it unfounded or am I totally screwed when I graduate because there won't be any jobs?

My Answer: Yes, I too have noticed that attitude about the MLIS, especially on blogs like the Annoyed Librarian.  I agree, to an extent, with what they are saying.  Many of the online programs have become degree mills.  They accept just about everyone and everyone graduates because (and the longer you are in school, the more you will notice this) library school just isn't that hard.  Sure, there is a lot of work, but compared to many graduate programs, library school is a breeze. 

Because just about everyone graduates, there are tons of new librarians entering the work force.  Unfortunately, there aren't enough jobs to go around for all of these new librarians.  Budget cuts/a poor economy, a high rate of unemployed librarians, and a lack of new jobs opening up (whether created because of expansion or filling open positions) has led us to this point.  Yet, the ALA and many library schools are still proclaiming that librarianship is a rapidly growing career, new jobs are opening up all the time, and tons of librarians are getting ready to retire.  Us recent grads, unemployed and newly employed librarians alike, know this isn't true.

However, does this mean that the value of the MLIS has decreased?  Yes and no.  Yes, because too many degreed, professional librarians means that the job market is overly saturated.  Yes, because there are lots of highly qualified unemployed librarians out there applying for entry level jobs as paraprofessionals just to have a library job.  Yes, because of those so-called degree mills letting anyone become a librarian whether or not they are truly qualified and/or suited to be one.

But at the same time, no the value of the MLIS hasn't decreased.  Why?  Because, let's face it, as much as we say a paraprofessional can do anything (and sometimes better) a professional librarian can do, it just isn't true.  I have a wonderful, very competent library assistant who just cannot do the work I do.  She's great working in the library and working with our users, but she isn't comfortable at doing reference work (PubMed confounds her) and cataloging just doesn't make sense.  I could spend lots of time teaching her those skills, but I can't teach her the background nor can I really answer the "why?" questions; that's something that one can only learn in library school. 

Anyone can learn to be a good searcher or a good cataloger or even a good administrator on the job.  But that's not just what library school is about.  Library school is about gaining experience in several different fields of librarianship.  It's about learning how to conduct research in case you are ever called up to write a grant or design and publish a study for your institution.  It's about exposing yourself to a variety of ideas and viewpoints from a vast group of librarians.  It's about making connections, both social and intellectual, with your colleagues. 

So in my humble opinion, the value of the MLIS has decreased, but is still incredibly important.  Without one, you are stuck checking in books, shelving, and doing simple tasks, not because you lack the skills to do other things but because you don't have that piece of paper that says "Masters in Library and Information Sciences" on it. 

Annie, my advice to you is to stay in school and stay very positive about your chances of getting a job.  Become a well-rounded librarian.  Take classes in a variety of subjects; do at least one internship (more if you can manage it); get a part-time job or volunteer in your local public or academic library; get involved with the research your professors are doing; make important connections with professors, other librarians, and students by joining associations, going to conferences, and discussing library issues with those around you.

Stay positive! The job market will turn around one of these days.  If you work hard and open yourself up to all sorts of possibilities, you will likely find yourself working as a professional librarian very soon.  It may not be in the place or even in the type of library you wanted or expected, but it will be a library job.  And, hopefully, that will be enough to start.

I invite you to check out my series on what I wish I learned in library school (read the comments; they are really good), my guest post series from new librarians, and check out my friend Lauren's post on internships.

I hope this helps and answers some of your questions.  Again, thanks for writing and for reading!

What is your advice to Annie?  What do you think her chances are at getting a job?  What is your opinion on the attitude towards the MLIS these days?

The 5 Best Places to Look for Library Jobs

Just because I'm employed now doesn't mean I've forgotten what it was like hunting (and hunting) for a job.  I've given some advice and shared some of things I learned through my process.  Today, I thought I would share (what I think are) the five best places to look for jobs.

1. ALA JobList  - A lot of libraries only post here, so this should be your first stop.  If you are going to mid-winter or annual conference in hopes of finding a job, ALA provides an icon to let you know which libraries will be present.  You can also follow them on Twitter @ALA_JobLIST.

2. UT School of Information JobWeb - This was my favorite source of listings. You can sign up to get emails several times a week and the listings here are very complete.  A lot of the jobs are in Texas, especially media specialists and public libraries, but they also have plenty of jobs outside the state as well.  They also post newly opened jobs quickly which sometimes doesn't happen with other sites.  This is also a good source if you are looking for a more technical library job, like in metadata, web design, etc.  If you aren't getting their emails and you're job hunting, you are missing out.

3. The Chronicle of Higher Education - This is a good place to go for jobs in academic libraries.  You can create a profile that allows you to save the postings you like and even apply through them. 

4. Your specialty's list-serv - Most specialties have at least one list-serv where people in that field stay on top of the latest information.  At lot of the times jobs are listed here first before they get posted to the bigger places.  I would highly recommend subscribing to at least one of the list-servs in your area of specialization and following it everyday.  You never know what you're going to find.

5. Local sources - Local sources can be your library school (I get plenty of job postings through my school's list-serv), local job boards, and your local newspaper.  The job I currently have wasn't posted anywhere but on MEDLIB (which is the medical library's list-serv) and in the local paper.  I didn't read MEDLIB until I started working part time and I never checked the paper.  I just didn't think a library would post a job in the paper.  As it turns out the job was posted in the paper because it wasn't posted by a librarian, but by an administrator who didn't know all the excellent sources for library job listings online.  It was only posted on the list-serv because someone local found it and posted it.  So if you are looking for a special librarian position, check local sources because those are the places non-librarians are going to put them. 

I know there are tons of other sources out there, but these are what I consider the top 5.  What's your favorite library job resource?

What I Wish I Had Learned in Library School, Part III

This is my final entry in what turned into be a series on all the things I wish I had learned while I was in library school.  If you  missed it, you can read part one here and part two here.

This week I want to address 4 skills that I wish I had acquired while I was in library school.  All of these were touched on in some form or fashion in a variety of classes, but I would have loved a class, or even a special not-for-credit, after school, workshop to address some of these.

The first skill is Vendor Relations.  My friend Lauren and I have discussed that we both lack skills in dealing with vendors.  Her encounters with vendors have only come from conferences, but I deal with vendors everyday.  I really wish I knew how exactly I was supposed to handle their incessant phone calls, their pleas for me to try a new project, and 5 minute elevator pitches on why their product is perfect for my library and how they can work with me on the price issue.  I never seem to know what to say.  I'm actually running a free trial on an ebook platform that I'm 95% sure I won't buy because the ebooks are so expensive.  I didn't know how to say no and the rep kept calling about it until I finally gave in and am now "running" a free trial.  I say "running" because I'm not promoting it at all.  The trial comes with access to all the ebooks they have, but then when you buy, you only see what books you've purchased.  I don't want to expose the doctors to something and then take it away.  That doesn't seem fair. 

On the opposite of vendors who call too much, are vendors that I need to talk to and want to hear more about their product, but don't really know how to go about it.  For example, the vendor the library uses for all of our print journals and some of our databases has provided me with no less than 5 reps to contact.  I have no idea who's who so I end up calling one, who ends up being the wrong person, and then he/she has to direct me to the right person to talk to.  It's frustrating because I was dumped into this with no prior knowledge of the system and now I'm just trying to sort through it all to reach the person I need to talk to.  Like Lauren, I also struggle to find ways to talk to them about my needs.  I'm always careful not to bring up money to soon, but in a super small library, it's always going to be the first issue.  I need to learn to deal with vendors correctly so both of us get what we want.  I do better learning from classes, readings, and presentations.  Does anyone know of some good information on this topic?

Management is something I've addressed multiple times.  I wasn't really prepared to be a manager in my first job (other than managing myself which is hard enough).  I think that I had I worked in a library and worked under a good manager, I would be a better manager myself.  I have a wonderful library assistant who works with me two days a week.  She's the only person I manage and we get along just fine, but sometimes I wish I knew more.  Having experience would have really helped here.  As much as they tried to teach management in school, I honestly don't think it's a skill that can be taught.  It must be learned by watching and by being managed.  If you know of any good people management materials, please share!

Management of people is not the only part of management.  I manage a whole library.  I run the show.  From the cataloging to the decision making to the budget, it's all my job.  I think this was taught a little better in school, but most days I still have no clue what I'm doing.  I think it would be better if I actually had a copy of my budget and a better idea of how my money get's spent, but alas, I (still) don't.  I think that I do a pretty good job running the library, but most of that is just common sense and thinking on my feet.  Hmm...maybe that's all that management really is?  That would be so easy! 

Resume, interview, and general job hunting skills were something I got from applying to many jobs and then asking why I wasn't getting interviewed.  I had lots of different people, from my parents to my professors to actual librarians look over my resume/CV and cover letters.  I got lots of advice and most of it seemed to work out pretty well.  I strongly suggest showing your stuff around to as many people as possible and really listening to what they have to say.  Back in the fall when many of my fellow classmates were dealing with job hunting in a bad economy, I asked one of our professors who used to be an assistant dean of our library and did a lot of hiring, to do some workshops on job hunting, resume writing, interviewing, etc.  It turned out to be a great program.  I wish that it had happened earlier in the year, so that I could have gotten more out of it, but I know that many of my classmates did.  I encourage you, if you are still in school, to ask a professor whose really great at resume critiques to do hold workshops like these.  If you are interested in knowing what we covered, email me and I'll be happy to share more information.  The reason I'm putting this down as a skill I wish I had learned is because I wish that something like this had been offered every semester (or at least once a year) so that as many people could take advantage of it. 

The last skill is the most important I think.  Marketing and advertising are two things that I desperately wish I knew more about.  Lisa mentioned in the comments last week that her school started offering a library marketing course after she left.  I would have loved to take a class like that!  Even while I was in school, I wished for marketing skills because I kept seeing job postings for an "outreach" librarian.  These were more common in academic libraries, but I saw a few postings for public libraries as well.  And now that I'm running the show, I wish I knew more about getting the word out to my patrons, talking to doctors about new things, finding out what they would like to see in the library, etc.  I would have really enjoyed a course like that.  I attended a session on marketing academic libraries at ALLA conference this winter and while some things definitely apply in my own library, one 1 hour session wasn't near enough.  Does anyone know of any continuing ed courses or know anything about library marketing?  Please share!

I know this was long, and I apologize for that.  I asked several questions that I would love to see some responses to.  In case you missed them they are: 

• Does anyone know of some good information on improving vendor relations?
• Do you know of any good people management materials? 
• Does anyone know of any continuing ed courses in marketing and advertising or do know anything about library marketing and would be willing to share? 
• Lastly, what are some skills that you wished you learned in library school?

Please share your thoughts in the comments.  Inquiring librarians want to know!

What I Wish I Learned in Library School, Part II

Last week, I blogged about how I wish I had done library school differently.  This week I'm here to tell you what classes I wish I had taken and the things I should have paid more attention to.  I did learn a lot in library school, a ton really.  I couldn't be a librarian without the skills I acquired in school.  But knowing that doesn't stop me from wishing I had had more time, more courses, a better sense of the job market and that it was/is necessary to be as marketable as possible, and a better focus.  

I am NOT a good student.  Sure, I appear to be.  I made straight A's in library school, including reference which is by and large considered to be the toughest class in the program.  (That is, if it is taught by Margaret Dalton.  And it should be; that's the only way to roll.)  I graduated magna cum laude from undergrad which is where I learned to write lengthy papers with no purpose whatsoever (a skill necessary in library school).  Despite that, I am a terrible student.  I played games on my computer in class, I rarely did the reading, I crammed for finals, and wrote papers in 12 hour stints, putting it off until the last possible moment.  Knowing this about myself, I can't really say that I wish I had done things differently in school, because I know that I wouldn't have done the learning part differently.  I always started out each semester with good intentions; I did my reading, focused in class, asked intelligent questions.  But unless the class was particularly interesting and/or entertaining (which only happened twice), I stopped doing the reading, starting gchatting my friends, and occasionally job hunted (in my last semester at least) during class.  

I do wish, however, that in certain circumstances I had paid more attention.  In my organization of information course we briefly touched on cataloging for a class or two.  It confused me greatly and I drowned my confusion in yet another game of BrickBreaker.  I learned very little about cataloging and what I did learn/understand made me stay away from the cataloging course.  In the words of Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman, "Big mistake. Huge".  I needed that class.  Not only would it have made me infinitely more marketable in my job search, it would have been tremendous help to me now.  But no.  I ignored the class both semesters it was offered.  

Another course I wish I had taken was Special Libraries.  I actually thought about taking this one, because I knew that cool research jobs occasionally came open and they were primarily in special libraries, but there were so many people who wanted to take the course that I opted out so not to take the place of someone who really wanted to take it.  The class is only offered once a year, and I thought that I was doing the nice thing.  After all, I wouldn't be working in a special library.  I was going to be an academic reference librarian (right?  RIGHT?)

Along those same lines is management.  I took the required management course; in fact, I took two.  I took both Academic and Public Libraries.  I can honestly say that Academic Libraries is the class I learned the least in and paid attention the least.  I spent that class buried in the back row with my roommate, playing games, eating lunch, and generally not learning.  Public Libraries was decent.  My professor was the director of our local public library, and when she was on her game, taught us a whole lot about real life in a public library.  Her class actually made me want to work in a public library.  But honestly, I didn't learn anything about management.  Management is, along with some other things, a skill that I will address in my next post, but it's also something I was really unprepared for and one that taking the Special Libraries class or the regular library management course may have helped fix. 

Other courses I wish I taken were Information Resources in the Sciences, mostly because there are ton of jobs open as health science librarians in academic institutions (and because it would help me now); user instruction, which was actually offered, but I was too busy with my history classes, and medical libraries, which wasn't offered until I graduated, but wow would that have been a help.  Most of this would have simply made me a more well-rounded librarian.  If I had taken cataloging and the Sciences course, I could have applied for more than double of the jobs I qualified for.  I may not want to be a cataloger, but after 5 months of unemployment, I would have started applying for anything, had I been qualified.  

Check back next week, when I will discuss all the skills that I wish had been taught or that I wish I had acquired.  In the meantime, share your thoughts.  What classes do you wish you had taken in library school?

Guest Post: The Life and Times of a New Librarian

Today, as part of my ongoing series about being a librarian in today's economy, my friend from library school, Lauren, stops by. Lauren is still in library school and is sharing her story about why she has chosen to postpone her graduation until December. Lauren has recently started blogging and her blog is awesome! If you missed the last two posts in the series, you can read them here and here.

I read a LOT of librarian blogs. My Google Reader fills up quickly every day with posts about the latest and greatest trends/news in a variety of libraries, about a variety of services (reference, cataloging, digitization, etc). I read everything from In the Library with the Lead Pipe, a blog with peer-reviewed type entries, to library_mofo, a LiveJournal community where librarians go to vent. When people ask me what my specialization or interest in library science is, I rattle off a laundry list.

Despite the fact that I do not have my heart set on one kind of library or type of position, I know without a doubt that I want to be a librarian. An information professional. The job title doesn't really matter. I am absolutely certain that this is the profession I want participate in, contribute to, and go above and beyond for. The Annoyed Librarian would probably hate me. But I have read about and experienced the difficult patrons, the criticism/questioning of the profession and library school, and the "do we have a future?" scares. I've questioned the choice a few times. And I'm in it for the long haul.

In spite of being focused on that goal, and gaining experience in several different settings since I began library school in January 2009, I spent a lot of this past semester feeling depressed. When the majority of my incredibly talented, hardworking colleagues graduated in December 2009 without full-time jobs (not for lack of trying since September), I realized that my plans to graduate a semester early, in August 2010, might need adjusting. Since I have student jobs, I would have a significant lapse in income, even if I could get a local part-time job. I have a substantial amount of student loan debt. My parents were badly affected by the recession; without going into the details, suffice it to say that moving in with them would create a huge burden.

Thus, about halfway through the semester, I decided to postpone graduation until December 2010. However, shortly thereafter, I also decided I wasn't going to let fear and depression take over. The job situation is bleak for everyone, but I knew I couldn't give up before I even started.

While I knew I would have to work twice as hard as before, I chose to channel my fears into getting more involved and stepping out of my comfort zones. I have always been shy, and often let others take the lead in groups. But I realized that I had nothing to lose—in fact, I had much more to gain by working on myself and facing my fears. So I started small, and co-presented two posters at the Alabama Library Association conference. Then, I decided to take on a new leadership role, (UA student group president of SLA), determined not to make it just a line on my CV, but to seek out opportunities and programs that would benefit my fellow students (SLISers note: stay tuned for this, and hold me to it!). I wanted to go to both of the 2010 SLA and ALA national conferences to network with professionals while I could still afford the student rates. I took on three part-time summer jobs. I began the process of lining up a not-for-credit internship for the fall. I am finally starting the blog I always claimed I didn't have the time or creativity for. While none of this guarantees me a job, I now have several librarians and professors willing to provide references for me, and that is at least one weight lifted off my shoulders.

I am not listing these things to brag on myself or deem myself superwoman. FAR from it! I am only one of many librarians-to-be out there trying to carve a path for myself. But this is how I am staying focused and preparing for that grueling job search. Every single one of these actions originated from tips my mentors gave me (the original tip: get a mentor… or several!), and I wanted to pass them along to those who are similarly discouraged. If it's feasible for you, take advantage of being a student as long as possible (here's a great article on this: http://liscareer.com/katopol_school.htm). Whether you work full-time or part-time, get involved however you can. Start small, and make changes in manageable increments. Go the extra mile when you have the opportunity.

The job situation is not going to get much better unless we advocate for libraries and find a way to demonstrate our worth to key decision-makers. That change has to come from the top, and is a subject for another post. But for now, there are many factors in finding a job that we have absolutely no control over. All we can really control is our level of involvement and commitment to our future profession, put ourselves out there, and hope for the best.

After months of tossing and turning, I'm finally able to go to sleep at night. I'm living in the present, not the future, knowing that I'm doing the best I can with what I have, and that has made all the difference.

If you have any advice or comments for Lauren, please feel free to share in the comments!

 

Guest Post: The Life and Times of a New Librarian

As part of my series on life as a new librarian in today's economy, Jenny is stopping by to share her story.  Jenny is a reader of the blog and we've been emailing back and forth over the last few months about our various experiences in job hunting.  She's had tons of interviews, but just hasn't found the right fit yet.  If you missed last week's post from Megg, check it out!

First off I'm not technically unemployed. I just not employed as a professional librarian. I work as a library assistant part time at two different libraries. Like a lot of public libraries mine are having budget issues. Both libraries have said they'd give me a full time job if they could, but they can't.  I graduated in May 2009 with my MLS. I had one interview previous to graduation. I saw the job ad on a state library association's website. At the interview I learned that the job title was different from the one advertised. I didn't want the job that they were discussing. It didn't even sound like the job I applied for.

The short version of the rest of post grad 2009:
interview #2 wasn't qualified for
interview #3 thought I was perfect for but the library apparently didn't
interview #4 same as #3
interview #5 wasn't qualified for
interview #6 again thought I was qualified for but maybe over educated for.

You may ask why I applied for jobs I wasn't qualified for. I have learned that a lot of jobs are different from the ones advertised. You learn some interesting things during job interviews. 

The first week of 2010 found me interviewing another job I felt I was perfect for. A week or so later I got the most uplifting and encouraging rejection letter ever. I almost felt like framing it.  I didn't get another interview until April. It was approaching the year mark of my graduation. I knew it wouldn't be easier but I never imagined a year would go by. Then, like in October, I ended up having two interviews in one week. Interview #8 was another case of misleading job ad. Interview #9 I liked the library itself but not the job. 

In May I received a call to have an interview with a library that I had applied to be in their applicant pool. I actually got the call for the interview before I knew I was official in the pool.  After doing the world's longest and most detailed questionnaire that gets scored and you have to receive a certain score to get into the pool. Interview #10 was for a department I had never worked in. About two days after this phone interview the youth services department head calls me and said they went with someone else. It was the first time I received a rejection phone call.

I thought I rocked interview #11, which was an interesting one. I had modified my interview techniques. Added a few interesting questions to the part of interview when they ask if you have questions. I also changed the way I dressed. Before I was strictly a dress wearer to interview. This time I wear a blouse and pants. Still a rejection letter shortly followed.

The library from interview #10 called me again. This time it was for a reference librarian position. A couple days later I got a rejection e-mail. Boo.  Lucky #13? I should have known it was too good to be true. Except I am sort of to blame on this one. I did a questionnaire and a phone interview. I had a face to face interview schedule but I decided to back out of it. It was a combination of the fact that this library was 5 hours away from my friends and family plus the salary wasn't really at the professional level and that's why I went to grad school. Also shortly after canceling the interview I received some bad news in regards to a relative. It's for the best that I'm not having to pack up and move at this current moment.

Like Elizabeth I currently live with my parents to save money. It does allow me to be a little more picky about my potential jobs than some other people. And to be honest there's only a couple of the 13 jobs that I'm sad I didn't get. Like my mentor told me "You're interviewing them not vice versa." I just haven't met my match yet.


Thanks Jenny!  If you have any comments, support, or advice to Jenny, please share!

Guest Post: The Life and Times of a New Librarian

Today we have a very special treat.  Megg, from The Life of a Not So Desperate Housewife, is joining us for a guest post.  I met Megg in graduate school and she is an amazing author, a fellow cook, and an aspiring YA librarian.  As part of my new series on life as a new librarian in today's economy, Megg is sharing her experiences as an unemployed librarian.  Stop by Megg's awesome blog to say hello and wish her luck in her ongoing job hunt!

I had a plan.

It was simple. Graduate with my MLIS, get married, move (all within a month), get a job, work for a few years, buy a house, have a baby, work part time. Sad to say, I've been married five months and  have only accomplished the first three things in that list. Sometimes, things don't go as planned.

I went back to school knowing I wanted to work with teens. While I love children and would accept a children's librarian position in a heartbeat, my passion lies with teens and young adults. Upon arriving in King County, it became obvious to me that the best way to get a job in the public library system was to apply for the librarian job pool. (As a side note, if you're wondering how I discovered this, it was by receiving multiple rejection letters for jobs I knew I was over-qualified for. Talk about frustrating.)

So, in an attempt to follow the plan I had so carefully set up for myself, I applied for the librarian job pool, passed the initial phone interview, and headed out (in a brand new interview outfit) to the in-person interview.

The interview seemed to go well, and I was pleased with my responses when I left. To their credit, there were very few of the “typical” interview questions, such as, “What are your weaknesses?” (this question is my weakness!) and “Where do you see yourself in 5 years?” Instead there were a lot of, “Tell me about a time when...” and I thought I had used great examples from my myriad of work experience. One of the most disappointing facts I was told throughout the interview was that the pool is very competitive. Confident that at least I didn't graduate from University of Washington like all the other applicants, I assured myself I was in the clear. I was told I would hear back in a couple weeks, so I went on vacation and put the whole experience out of my mind.

A week later (boy are they fast when they make a decision!) I got a call from my husband, who was not yet on vacation with me. I had received something from King County Library System in the mail, and he had opened it, only to find out that I had not made it into the pool. It was then that I realized that my plan was definitely not going the way I had thought.

For a few hours my world fell out from under me. There was never any thought that I wouldn't get into the pool. After all, I'm a fun, perky librarian eager to make my entrance into the world of public libraries. Who wouldn't want to throw me into a pool of hundreds of applicants. My biggest worry was that I wouldn't get a job from the pool for a year, not that I would have to wait one more year to simply reapply for the pool.

Was I disappointed? You better believe it. Did I feel like a failure? I still do. I'm still wondering what I was thinking by leaving my 40 hour job as a reporter (which, granted, did not afford me enough money to move out of my parent's house) and putting myself into debt which will follow me for the next 10 or so years. But at the end of the day, I have to remember something. I need to be flexible. I'm living in an economy where my dream of working in a public library just isn't feasible. I'm also living about 20 minutes from a huge city with multiple colleges and several community colleges. There are options, but I, with my blinders on, refused to see anything but my plan.

How will it work out? I have no idea. But I can also tell you that 4 years ago I could never have imagined that I would be living in the Pacific Northwest, almost as far from my family as I could be, babysitting and watching Wife Swap while my husband works 40 hours a week. I did not anticipate this, and yet, I'm happy. Would I love to be working 40 hours a week? Of course. But I think my rejection from the pool was simply someone's (God, fate, whatever you choose to believe) way of telling me that His plan is much much greater than mine. And I know that whatever job I do end up with will be sweeter for the waiting.
 

The Life and Times of a New Librarian

I haven't been especially good about blogging about my job.  Mostly that's because it keeps me incredibly busy all day long.  I'm constantly learning new things and every day is a new adventure.  Medical librarianship is so not where I thought I would end up, but I'm really enjoying it.  I hope, sometime very soon, to share some of my experiences and what's it like to be a newly employed librarian.  

On a similar note, I've decided to host a series of guest blogs on what it's like to be a new librarian in today's economy.  There has been lots of depressing news going on about library closures and jobs lost.  I thought it might be interesting to get some different perspectives (other than mine) on what it's like to be looking for a job, to be newly employed, or to be a library school student.  The series will be entitled "The Life and Times of a New Librarian" will (hopefully!) run every Thursday over the next month or so.  Right now I have two posts lined up and am working on getting a few more.  If you fit any of the above categories and are willing to share your experiences, please email me!

The first guest post by my friend Megg will be up on Thursday.  I hope you are as excited about this new series as I am!

I Am No Longer the Unemployed Librarian

Tuesday I posted that I had a job interview. Yesterday, while I was at work, the HR department called and offered me the full-time librarian position at the hospital I am currently working at. I am super excited about this job. It's nothing I ever expected, but I'm excited about all the prospects it presents and all the changes I hope to make. I start full-time a week from Monday after a brief orientation to learn about my benefits and all that fun stuff.

Working full-time comes with it a whole slew of new questions and problems including moving. Right now, I've decided to focus on work and settling in to my new job for two months. Then in July, we will revisit the topic and make some decisions. My parents would like me to buy a house since interest rates are low and it is a buyer's market. I have some money saved, but there are other budget issues to settle first (like having an emergency fund) before I can work on saving towards a down payment. I know the right solution to rent or to buy will present itself in due time.

I'm so excited to have finally found a job. Especially one that I like. It's been a long haul, but I'm satisfied with the results. To all those unemployed librarians out there, keep job searching! Don't get discouraged. You will find a job; it make take lots of time but stay positive. Network all you can (that's how I got the part-time job that led to full-time work) and don't be afraid to take something part time or below your pay grade. You never know what it could turn into!

Adventures in Job Hunting

I have been looking for a full-time library or information professional job since September. I had heard (correctly) that academic libraries take a ridiculously long time to process applications and make decisions, so I figured that by getting started 4 months before graduation would be plenty of time to get a job before I had to move out of my apartment at the end of January. Obviously, that was not the case as it is now March and I'm writing a blog about being an unemployed librarian. I've learned a few things over the past months about job searching and thought I would take the opportunity to share this with you.

1. Apply early. Many jobs claim to be "open until filled" and usually that means you can submit your application at your leisure. In today's economy, however, this is no longer the case. I have received two letters during my search that says I was too late; they've received too many applications to get to mine. So open until filled isn't actually the case. My advice: as soon as you find the posting, apply for the job. Hopefully your application will get in the stack that actually gets reviewed and not thrown in the trash.
   
2. Don't apply for a job you don't want. I learned this one the hard way. Back in January I finally got an my first face-to-face interview at a small town public library. I was prepared to move to a small town and prepared to take on a job that might be over my head. Or so I thought. The more time I spent at the interview, the more I realized that I'm not cut out for public librarianship. I thought that I could take a public library job until I found an academic one, but soon after leaving the interview, I realized that I would be doing both the library and myself a disservice if I took a job I didn't want. I would be unhappy thus my work, and consequently, my patrons, would suffer. I was offered the job soon after the interview and turned it down. My dad keeps asking me if I regret it two unemployed months later and my answer is still no. But lesson learned: don't apply for a job just to apply. Only apply for the jobs you are prepared to do and jobs in places you are willing to live.
   
3. That said, don't be too picky. I know that I want to eventually end up in a larger research institution. However, that isn't stopping me from applying to small colleges, community and junior colleges, and special research libraries. I need to get some experience before I can apply to large universities. These smaller institutions will provide me with the experience I need.
   
4. Patience. Having patience is good advice in life and great advice in job searching. It is not a virtue I'm known for, but I'm definitely working to improve myself in that respect. I know that if I keep applying, continue to follow up, and remain patient, I will eventually get a job I want.
   

What have you learned from job hunting? Feel free to share!